Vitalik Fires First Shot at "Reform," Where Is the Ethereum Foundation Headed?

By: blockbeats|2025/01/26 02:45:03

Original Title: "Vitalik Fires the First Shot of 'Reform,' Where Is the Ethereum Foundation Headed?"

Original Author: Wenser, Odaily Planet Daily

On January 18, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik posted, stating that he is "in the process of making significant changes to the leadership structure of the Ethereum Foundation (EF)."

Upon this news, it sparked a heated discussion: Some believed that he has finally "seen the light"; some said, "It's long overdue to clean up the EF's leadership who are just clinging to their positions"; while others thought, "Due to the rapid development of the Solana ecosystem, the Ethereum ecosystem is facing an unprecedented crisis, and he is feeling the pressure."

It is certain that Vitalik is not the only one feeling anxious.

On the evening of January 22, Konstantin Lomashuk, the co-founder of the important infrastructure project in the Ethereum ecosystem, Lido, first retweeted a tweet about the "second foundation," and then clarified that it was not related to a second EF, just a regular tweet. Last September, in response to the stagnant development of the Ethereum ecosystem, we proposed a solution in the article "Ethereum Is 'Sick': Are These Three Medicines Effective?" Now, it seems that our prediction was correct.

However, a more important question has emerged: How to revitalize the glory of the Ethereum ecosystem? Will the EF reform herald a revival? With such questions in mind, Odaily Planet Daily will provide a systematic analysis in this article on the possible follow-up of the EF's transformation and the future direction of the Ethereum ecosystem for readers' reference.

Pride and Prejudice: The Bright and Dark Sides of the Ethereum Foundation

On January 18, Ethereum ecosystem leader and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated in a post that the EF leadership structure has undergone a significant overhaul for nearly a year. In other words, throughout 2024, the EF leadership led by Vitalik has actually been undergoing a "self-revolution." However, at present, we can draw the interim conclusion that: this self-revolution has had limited success so far.

Signal of Transformation Goals: Focus on the Ecosystem, No Intention to Engage in Politics or Ideology

In light of this, Vitalik also mentioned that the main goals of this transformation are:

· Raise the technical expertise of the EF leadership;

· To improve two-way communication and connection between the EF leadership and ecosystem stakeholders, our responsibility is to support users (individual and institutional), application developers, wallets, L2;

· To bring in fresh blood, increase execution capability and speed;

· To more actively support application developers, ensuring that key values and inalienable rights (especially privacy, open-source, anti-censorship) are realistically available to users, including at the application layer;

· To continue increasing the use of decentralization and privacy technologies, as well as the Ethereum chain, including for payments and fund management.

Additionally, he emphasized that the goal of the EF transformation does *not* include:

· Implementing a shift in ideology/atmosphere (worth mentioning is that here he refers to: from a feminized "wef soyboy" mindset to a Bronze Age mindset, Odaily Star Daily Note: meaning a shift from a soft, feminized perspective to a male-focused perspective that greatly emphasizes practical benefits and success);

· Actively lobbying regulatory agencies and powerful political figures (especially in the United States, focusing more on major powers), risking harming Ethereum's position as a global neutral platform;

· Becoming an arena for vested interests;

· Becoming a highly centralized organization, or even becoming the "protagonist" of Ethereum.

Finally, he mentioned: "These are not things that the EF does, and this will not change either. People are welcome to create their own organizations with different visions."

Upon careful consideration, Vitalik's outlined goals can be summarized as follows: to adhere to a tech-focused mindset; to uphold the ideal of decentralization; to steadfastly pursue L2 development; however, the specific measures are not yet clear. It is evident that Vitalik's reform of the EF is still at a superficial level, and the results are naturally self-evident.

The Most Controversial Aspects of the EF: Transparency, Workload, Sell-Off Speed

Returning to the root of the EF's current predicament, the author believes it mainly stems from the following 3 aspects:

Firstly, a lack of information transparency. This is not only reflected in the ambiguity of foundation-related fund spending but also in the delayed disclosures, contrasting sharply with the agile and efficient Solana ecosystem. In December of last year, the EF officially released the Q3 2024 grant project update report, during which the total amount of funding reached $12,848,780.33, covering community education, consensus layer, cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs, developer experience and tools, execution layer, L2, protocol growth and support, among other areas. Among them, community education projects accounted for the highest proportion, including activities such as the Blockchain Summer Bootcamp, BlockHack, Building Builders, and more. Additionally, the foundation continued to support the development of consensus layer clients such as Lighthouse, Nimbus, Grandine, as well as development tools such as Web3.js, OpenZeppelin's Account Abstraction Contract, and others. It is worth noting that, to my knowledge, the EF's funding has not been audited by a third-party independent organization. (If there are relevant examples, please feel free to provide corrections and clarifications)

At the same time, limited by geographical and time constraints, decision-making power funded by the EF is in the hands of a few, which is to be expected. This has also resulted in some community members who have contributed to the ecosystem not receiving the support they deserve. In early January, Evan Van Ness, the founder of the Ethereum Newsweekly (Week in Ethereum News, abbreviated as WiE), once wrote: "Due to a conversation earlier this year with EF leadership, I announce that this newsletter will cease operations, as the communication indicated that they believe continuing WiE is of no value. In the remaining time of 2024, WiE received minimal funding support from the EF. Although most of this support was symbolic, the EF leadership chose to cut off this insignificant support, clearly indicating that WiE would be terminated immediately."

Secondly, a lack of proof of work. For EF's work, the outside world is unable to see effective proof of work. For the blockchain world, although the Ethereum ecosystem has shifted to a PoS mechanism, at the organizational level, PoW remains the most direct and relatively efficient mode of operation. In this regard, the EF is a worthy negative example. "What you did and others knowing what you did" are two completely different things.

In addition, this result is also influenced by the organizational structure. This is also one of the hotly debated topics in the recent cryptocurrency field. As cryptocurrency KOL @0xAllending pointed out, "One of the main reasons Solana was able to stand out in the blockchain network competition is its concept and strength of operating as a company, challenging ETH's market dominance"; in contrast, the Ethereum ecosystem, especially the EF, is still in the stage of community organization structure similar to "decentralized community governance, top-level leadership + mid-level researchers/developers + ordinary community members/holders," dreaming of Mass Adoption under the banner of the 'world computer,' which is nothing short of a pipe dream.

Lastly, rapid dumping speed. This is the most criticized point of the EF by countless people. It is not that similar sell-off phenomena do not exist in other ecosystems but that EF's selling pressure always seems like a signal of a phase peak, and often at this time, no one mentions "Ethereum faith, holding ETH firmly." Previously, according to LookIntoChain monitoring, since the EF sold 100 ETH on December 17, the price of ETH has dropped by about 17%. In 2024, EF sold 4,466 ETH (approximately $12.6 million) in 32 transactions, with 15 transactions sold at or near the recent high.

Vitalik Fires First Shot at

EF has been a "Top Signal" for quite some time

Of note, earlier Token Terminal data showed that Ethereum's L1 network revenue saw a sharp decline, plummeting by 99% since March 2024. On March 5, the Ethereum Layer 1 network revenue reached a peak of over $35 million per day; however, by September 2, daily revenue had fallen to around $200,000, marking the lowest daily revenue of the year. At that time, cryptocurrency analyst Kun warned that if this trend continued, L2 networks might take the lead, potentially abandoning Ethereum's mainnet, especially for consumer applications. Although this revenue eventually recovered to pre-Dencun upgrade levels by the end of 2024, the Ethereum mainnet protocol's revenue decline was evident.

Upon closer examination, perhaps pride and prejudice are the main culprits.

Root Causes: Pride Is the Original Sin, Prejudice Is the Shackle

EF researcher Justin Drake had stated in early December last year that Solana's golden age was about to end, posing no threat to Ethereum. Despite Solana's strong momentum, Drake mentioned, Ethereum focuses on long-term sustainability (does this phrase sound familiar?). "Solana is now at its peak, but I think this will mark the end of Solana's golden age as all of Solana's competitive advantages in latency and throughput will vanish, as the fundamental differences in architecture make it not scalable." Currently, Ethereum developers heavily rely on Layer 2 to provide faster, cheaper transactions. Drake stated: "I think Ethereum L1 is competing with the Bitcoin ecosystem, while L2 networks are competing with Solana. Therefore, competition with Solana doesn't even fall within the responsibility of Ethereum L1; we should compete in terms of security and sustainability. So if Solana has any competition, it should come from applications and L2 networks."

In a parallel development, Evan Van Ness, founder of the Ethereum newsletter, responded to a tweet about the impending closure of the newsletter by referring to "Solana" as "Sqlana," seemingly suggesting that Solana is a centralized database, which was also noted by some in the comments. Veteran node operator @JustDoingItBig found this puzzling: In 2018, Bitcoin believers mocked Ethereum node running as a "centralized database"; now, Ethereum supporters are behaving similarly.

History has always rhymed, as they say.

As for the view on the Ethereum Foundation (EF), from personal observation, the majority of the Ethereum community members still show positive support. Most of the expressions of dissatisfaction come from ETH traders or market retail investors. Among them, perhaps community member fishbiscuit (@not_qz)'s viewpoint can represent a considerable portion of the "EF faithful." He has previously responded to various community criticisms of the Foundation, clarifying:

· Social media activity: Similar to the Solana Foundation, the EF has mainly retweeted content in the past, but has recently started to be more actively sharing updates;

· On-chain usage: The Foundation has staked 42,000 ETH to support client development, while also funding on-chain projects such as EIP-1559 NFT, Beacon Book, and providing grants through the mainnet and L2. Events like Devcon also support crypto payments;

· ETH sales: In response to criticisms of the Foundation's ETH sales, he pointed out that the Foundation's actions are aimed at balancing market pressures through various strategies. He called on the community to avoid double standards, emphasized the regulatory challenges faced by the Foundation, urged the community to rationally assess the Foundation's contributions, and encouraged more constructive discussions.

One cannot deny that, despite the many issues with the EF, the community's attitude remains extremely tolerant.

To some extent, this once again confirms a fact: actions speak louder than words. Since you're already on the Ethereum ship, you have to weather the storm together.

Key Contradictions: The Pressure on Vitalik, the Attacked Executive Director Aya, and the Fragmented Ethereum Community

As time has passed, many contradictions related to this EF reform have gradually come to the surface, with a sharp focus on Ethereum's founder Vitalik, EF Executive Director Aya, and the currently highly fragmented Ethereum community.

The Ethereum Thought Leader's Dilemma: Proactive Change vs. Past Friendships

Since the announcement of the EF reform on the 18th, Vitalik has undoubtedly been at the center of multiple pressures: on the one hand, the ETH price has performed poorly, and the development of the ETH ecosystem has moved away from its high-growth phase, requiring an urgent change in this situation; on the other hand, the EF core team has also entered a painful transition period, with events like "EF researcher Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist joining Eigenlayer" and "core researcher Danny Ryan leaving the EF last year," marking a test for past revolutionary friendships.

Recently, the announcement of Ethereum's early core developer Eric Conner's departure from the Ethereum community has sparked discussions (although, according to a certain Ethereum community member, this is not his first such "farewell"). However, unlike before, he also expressed that as Vitalik Buterin gradually steps back, the Ethereum Foundation's (EF) opacity and disconnect from the community have been increasing. He pointed out that the EF currently exhibits a "anti-victory and competitive mindset," leading many community members to question whether they should continue to stay (which directly conflicts with Vitalik's previous "manifesto of reform").

According to information from the Rootdata website, there are currently a total of 11 departing EF employees, including early BD personnel and the lead of the transition to POS, Danny Ryan. Based on a chart from last May, most departing EF members have chosen to start their own projects, with many still within the EVM ecosystem.

May 2024 EF Member Information

EF Departing Employees List

At the same time, current EF employees include protocol support leads such as Executive Director Aya, Tim Beiko, and many researchers, including Justin Drake. However, the confusion in organizational management has also come to light: recently, Ethereum Foundation researcher Alex Stokes announced that he and barnabe.eth would jointly serve as co-heads of the EF Research Department. Up to that point, many people were first made aware that the EF's research department includes the application research group, consensus R&D, cryptography, protocol security, and RIG teams. This is similar to when Tim Beiko, on his X platform account, published information on new department hires, and people only then realized how rigid EF's staff movements were.

Current EF Employees, total of 16

The convoluted organizational management has brought about widespread questioning and debate, with many directing their criticisms towards EF Executive Director Aya.

In order to maintain his "long-time comrades," the usually emotionally stable Vitalik had to take on the role of a "dictator" proactively — on January 21, he responded to community questions in a post, stating, "I decided who the new EF leadership team is. One of the goals of the ongoing reform is to provide EF with an 'appropriate board,' but until then, it's just me. If community members pressure the EF leadership, it creates a harmful environment for top talent."

EF Executive Director Aya's Middle Way: Against Speculation, Embracing the "Zen" Path

Many people may not know much about EF Executive Director Aya, but she is a key figure in the development of the Ethereum ecosystem.

In the article "Where Is the Road? A Brief Analysis of the 3 Major Abstract Issues Facing the Ethereum Ecosystem," we briefly introduced her, and in an interview in 2019, she mentioned: "When it comes to a blockchain full of infinite possibilities (like the current Ethereum), the path forward may not only include one, two, or three voices, but many voices. Our work (referring to EF) is to coordinate, not to make actual decisions. Decisions can be made by our members, who can also be part of the decision-making process, not necessarily all of it."

In a June 2023 interview with Wired magazine, Aya reiterated: "In response to the cryptocurrency speculation frenzy, if I am the only one saying 'no,' it doesn't make much sense, so I try to spread the same mindset among others, as if I were a Zen practitioner. Once this mindset takes root, people can be motivated without money, punishment, rules, or laws. This is because we are considering how to protect Ethereum culture after we and EF leave. If this mindset becomes the 'Zen' path, it will be great."

In this regard, Aya's views are highly consistent with Vitalik's, which has also drawn strong criticism from the current market. Countless people have used this to attack Aya, calling for her to step down soon. Some have suggested that Danny Ryan should take over the EF Executive Director position, forcing Ryan to clarify: "EF Executive Director Aya has made significant contributions to Ethereum's development, please do not casually attack her," and reiterating, "Whether I am here or not, EF is continuously developing and becoming better. I believe the Ethereum community will develop in a respectful and rational manner."

According to LinkedIn information, Aya graduated from the Business School of Washington State University, previously worked at the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken overseeing the Japan region, and joined EF as an executive director in 2018.

The Fragmented Ethereum Community: Consensus, Liquidity, and Attention

The third major contradiction currently facing the Ethereum community is "fragmentation" —

Firstly, there is fragmentation in consensus regarding Ethereum's value, role, mission, vision, short, medium, and long-term goals;

Secondly, there is fragmentation of liquidity in the Ethereum ecosystem caused by the L2 roadmap, leading to ETH losing price support;

Lastly, there is the most pressing issue of attention fragmentation in the cryptocurrency industry, with past attention gradually shifting from the crowded ETH to the hotspot concentration and wealth effect evident in Solana.

In this regard, the thinking of Solana's ecosystem leaders is undoubtedly clearer. Previously, Solana's co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko wrote: "Solana is a 'pure blockchain.' No DA layer, no L2, no L3, no interference. Just a fast and inexpensive blockchain." "Multiple L2s make no sense. If a single L2 can handle parallel execution, it can take up all blob space and run every use case." "Important base layer smart contracts only need 6; any optional developer increases business risk." In addition, he once stated in a debate with an EF researcher, "Ethereum's biggest problem is the uncertainty of DA's long-term value and the uncertainty of ETH's 'ultrasonic currency' vision." This view was also echoed by Uniswap co-founder Arthur Hayes.

Of course, to find a way out of the dilemma, Ethereum needs more detailed solutions.

The Three-dimensional Solution to the "Ethereum Dilemma": Strategy, Communication, and Positioning

Considering the above information, the author believes that the EF's pursuit of a solution to the "Ethereum Dilemma" includes the following 3 aspects:

Let Go of Biases, Let Go of Fixations

Firstly, the EF leadership led by Vitalik needs to adjust its perception: no longer be fixated on the long-term "world computer" goal but focus on short-term and mid-term realities.

Progress in this area includes the Ethereum Foundation's announcement of the activation of new X accounts, the establishment of an institutional marketing arm Etherealize to promote ETH to Wall Street (backed by Vitalik and the EF), and the EF's decision to use 50,000 ETH (approximately $150 million) through a 3/5 multisig wallet to participate in the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem.

In addition, the latest news shows that Vitalik has finally stopped insisting on "maintaining the neutrality and transcendence of the Ethereum mainnet ecosystem" and unilaterally blood transfusing to L2 networks. Instead, he directly stated that "encouraging Layer 2 to support ETH by contributing a certain percentage of fees, which can be achieved by burning part of the fee, permanently staking, and donating the rewards to public goods of the Ethereum ecosystem or some other schemes." For more information, see "Under Public Opinion Pressure, Vitalik Posts Calling for L2: Let's Support ETH Together".

Regarding the "Sharding" matter, once action begins, it is believed that the "Ghost Chain" issue in the EVM system will be further addressed.

Listening to the Community, Regular Communication

Secondly, the EF can no longer bury its head in the sand like an ostrich, ignoring the external environment and disregarding community feedback. It is worth mentioning that internally, the EF, including Vitalik, although currently not bearing the title of "emperor," does hold the role of a "leader." Therefore, the advice of "frequent the wise, distance from the villain" should be followed. Do not let the desire for approval, flattery, and pandering of those seeking Grants funding cloud your judgment.

Less academic discussions, more regular Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions with representatives at the organizational level—if they are technical personnel, focus more on technical discussions; if they are marketing personnel, engage more in marketing discussions; if they are merely freeloading and making decisions off the top of their heads, it's time to remove them from the EF.

Most importantly, do not confine yourself in an echo chamber.

Store of Value OR Medium of Exchange? That Is the Question

Lastly, it is about the positioning of ETH and the Ethereum network. The current fragmentation issue caused by dozens of L2 networks and the overwhelming power of the ETH incumbent interest group (i.e., too many profit-takers) are making it increasingly difficult to achieve ETH's value storage function. Simply advocating for "digital silver" is no longer convincing to the market.

As a means of payment is relatively more in line with market demand. In this regard, the Base ecosystem's Coinbase Wallet for consumers may be one of the future focuses of the Ethereum ecosystem. Although Vitalik insists on maintaining the neutrality and decentralization of the Ethereum ecosystem, progress on partnerships related to the United States may be difficult in the short term, but in the medium to long term, this remains an unavoidable issue.

In addition, as mentioned in a post by Marc Zeller, Founder of the Aave Chan Initiative (ACI) of the Aave contribution team, "To address the issues of the Ethereum Foundation, it is necessary to: convert the remaining ETH of the EF into a market-proven LST combination, reduce 95% of the current subsidy, especially initiatives similar to 'running a node in Wakanda,' refrain from selling ETH, and instead use LST to borrow stablecoins through Sky/Aave to reduce operating costs," which also holds some reference value.

Of course, the proposal to "dismiss 80% of non-developers and current leaders" and "hand over the official account to a few highly active ETH Maxi operators" is somewhat one-sided.

Lastly, the community ultrasound.money previously united many ETH Maxis in the Ethereum ecosystem, but eventually faded, which is a regrettable event. Perhaps with the EF reform, the related communities will also usher in a transformational opportunity.

Conclusion: "Don't Rest on Your Laurels, Strive for New Achievements"

Perhaps in the early development of the Ethereum ecosystem, the Ethereum Foundation's laissez-faire leadership style led to the rapid development of the Ethereum ecosystem. However, after experiencing several bull and bear cycles, since harboring the grand vision of "mass adoption," new solutions are needed rather than indulging in the past glory of "Ethereum as the first ecosystem in crypto," being complacent, and refusing to progress.

The TRUMP token has brought millions of people into the cryptocurrency world, and people's participation in wealth creation is understandable. After all, compared to the Web2 world that surrenders privacy and data, the eyeball effect and wealth-creation trend are the Trojan horse that the crypto world can offer to the traditional financial world. When the future arrives where the crypto economy is further linked with the global financial system, we will see the footprint of crypto across the universe.

By eliminating incorrect answers, we can have more courage and strength to face the new challenges posed by the crypto world.

On this point, countless people walk with me, so I am full of confidence, and I hope you are too.

Original Article Link

On May 13, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Coinbase would officially replace Discover Financial Services in the S&P 500 on May 19. While other companies like Block and MicroStrategy, closely tied to Bitcoin, were already part of the S&P 500, Coinbase became the first cryptocurrency exchange whose primary business is in the index. This also signifies that cryptocurrency is gradually moving from the fringes to the mainstream in the U.S.

On the day of the announcement, Coinbase's stock price surged by 23%, surpassing the $250 mark. However, just 3 days later, Coinbase was hit by two consecutive events: a hack where employees were bribed to steal customer data and a demand for a $20 million ransom, and an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the authenticity of its claim of having over 100 million "verified users" in its securities filings and marketing materials. These two events acted as mini-bombs, and at the time of writing, Coinbase's stock had already dropped by over 7.3%.

Coincidentally, Discover Financial Services, being replaced by Coinbase, can also be considered the "Coinbase" of the previous payment era. Discover is a U.S.-based digital banking and payment services company headquartered in Illinois, founded in 1960. Its payment network, Discover Network, is the fourth largest payment network apart from Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.

In April, after the approval of the acquisition of Discover by the sixth-largest U.S. bank, Capital One, this well-established digital banking company of over 60 years smoothly handed over its S&P 500 "seat" to this emerging cryptocurrency "bank." This unexpected coincidence also portrayed the handover between the new and old eras in Coinbase's entry into the S&P 500, resembling a relay race scene. However, this relay baton also brought Coinbase's accumulated "external troubles and internal strife" to a tipping point.

Side Effects of ETFs

Over the past decade, cryptocurrency exchanges have been the most stable "profit machines." They play a role in providing liquidity to the entire industry and rely on trading fees to sustain their operations. However, with the comprehensive rollout of ETF products in the U.S. market, this profit model is facing unprecedented challenges. As the leader in the "American stack," with over 80% of its business coming from the U.S., Coinbase is most affected by this.

Starting from the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, traditional financial capital has significantly onboarded users and funds that originally belonged to exchanges in a more cost-effective, compliant, and transparent manner. The transaction fee revenue of cryptocurrency exchanges has started to decline, and this trend may further intensify in the coming months.

According to Coinbase's 2024 Q4 financial report, the platform's total trading revenue was $417 million, a 45% year-on-year decrease. The contribution of BTC and ETH's trading revenue dropped from 65% in the same period last year to less than 50%.

This decline is not a result of a decrease in market enthusiasm. In fact, since the approval of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024, the inflow of BTC into the U.S. market has continued to reach new highs, with asset management giants like BlackRock and Fidelity rapidly expanding their management scale. Data shows that BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) alone has surpassed $17 billion in assets under management. As of mid-May 2025, the cumulative net inflow of 11 major institutional Bitcoin spot ETFs on the market has exceeded $41.5 billion, with a total net asset value of $1214.69 billion, accounting for approximately 5.91% of the total Bitcoin market capitalization.

Chart showing the trend of net outflows for Grayscale among the 11 institutions

Institutional investors and some retail investors are shifting towards ETF products, partly due to compliance and tax considerations. On one hand, ETFs have much lower trading costs compared to cryptocurrency exchanges. While Coinbase's spot trading fee rate varies annually in a tiered manner but averages around 1.49%, for example, the management fee for IBIT ETF is only 0.25%, and the majority of ETF institution fees fluctuate around 0.15% to 0.25%.

In other words, the more rational users are, the more likely they are to move from exchanges to ETF products, especially for investors aiming for long-term holdings.

According to multiple sources, several institutions, including VanEck and Grayscale, have submitted applications to the SEC for a Solana (SOL) ETF, with some institutions also planning to submit an XRP ETF proposal. Once approved, this may trigger a new round of fund migration. According to a report submitted by Coinbase to the SEC, as of April, the platform's trading revenue from XRP and Solana accounted for 18% and 10%, nearly one-third of the platform's fee revenue.

However, the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs passed in 2024 also reduced the fees for these two tokens on Coinbase from 30% and 15% to 26% and 10%, respectively. If the SOL and XRP ETFs are approved, it will further undermine the core fee revenue of exchanges like Coinbase.

The expansion of ETF products is gradually weakening the financial intermediary status of cryptocurrency exchanges. From their original roles as matchmakers and clearers to now gradually becoming mere "on-ramps and off-ramps" for funds, exchanges are seeing their marginal value squeezed by ETFs.

Robinhood Takes a Stand, Traditional Brokerages Join the Fray

On May 12, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins gave a keynote speech at the Tokenization and Cryptocurrency Working Group roundtable. The theme of his speech revolved around "It is a new day at the SEC," where he indicated that the SEC would not approach enforcement and regulation the same way as before but would instead pave the way for cryptocurrency assets in the U.S. market.

With signs of cryptocurrency compliance such as the SEC's "NEW DAY" declaration, an increasing number of traditional brokerages are attempting to enter the cryptocurrency industry. One of the most representative cases is the well-known U.S. brokerage Robinhood, which began expanding its crypto business in 2018. By the time of its IPO in 2021, Robinhood's crypto business revenue accounted for over 50% of the company, with a significant boost from the Dogecoin "moonshot" promoted by Musk.

In Q1 2025 earnings report, Robinhood showcased strong growth, especially in revenue from cryptocurrency and options trading. Fueled by Trump's Memecoin, cryptocurrency-related revenue reached $250 million, nearly doubling year-over-year. Consequently, Robinhood Gold subscription users reached 3.5 million, a 90% increase from the previous year, with the rapid growth of Robinhood Gold providing the company with a stable source of income.

Meanwhile, RobinHood is actively pursuing acquisitions in the cryptocurrency space. In 2024, it announced a $2 billion acquisition of the long-standing European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Additionally, Canada's largest cryptocurrency CEX, WonderFi, which recently went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, also announced its integration with RobinHood Crypto. After obtaining virtual asset licenses in the UK, Canada, Singapore, and other markets, RobinHood has taken a proactive approach in the compliant cryptocurrency trading market.

Furthermore, an increasing number of brokerage firms are exploring the same path. Futu Securities, Tiger Brokers, and others are also dipping their toes into cryptocurrency trading, with some having applied for or obtained the VA license from the Hong Kong SFC. Although their user bases are currently small, traditional brokerages have a natural advantage in user trust, regulatory licenses, and low fee structures. This could pose a threat to native cryptocurrency platforms in the future.

User Data Breach: Is Coinbase Still Secure?

In April 2025, security researchers discovered that some Coinbase user data was leaked on the dark web. While the platform initially responded by attributing it to a "technical misinformation," it still raised concerns among users regarding its security and privacy protection. Just two days before Dow Jones Indexes announced Coinbase's addition to the S&P 500 Index, on May 11, 2025, Coinbase received an email from an unknown threat actor claiming to have obtained customer account information and internal documents, demanding a $20 million ransom to keep the data private. Subsequent investigations confirmed the data breach.

Cybercriminals obtained the data by bribing overseas customer service agents and support staff, mainly in "non-U.S. regions such as India." These agents abused their access to Coinbase's internal customer support system and stole customer data. As early as February this year, blockchain detective ZachXBT revealed on X platform that between December 2024 and January 2025, Coinbase users lost over $65 million to social engineering scams, with the actual amount potentially higher.

Among the victims was a well-known figure, 67-year-old Ed Suman, an established artist in the art world for nearly two decades, having been involved in the creation of artworks such as Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" sculpture. Earlier this year, he fell victim to an impersonation scam involving fake Coinbase customer support, resulting in a loss of over $2 million in cryptocurrency. ZachXBT critiqued Coinbase for its inadequate handling of such scams, noting that other major exchanges have not faced similar issues and recommending Coinbase to enhance its security measures.

Amidst a series of ongoing social engineering incidents, although there has not been any impact on user assets at the technical level so far, it has raised concerns among many retail and institutional investors. Especially institutions holding massive assets on Coinbase. Just considering the U.S. BTC ETF institutions, as of mid-May 2025, they collectively hold nearly 840,000 BTC, and 75% of these are custodied by Coinbase. If we price BTC at $100,000, this amount reaches a staggering $63 billion, which is equivalent to the nominal GDP of two Iceland in the year 2024.

Visualization: ChatGPT, Source: Farside

In addition, Coinbase Custody also serves over 300 institutional clients, including hedge funds, family offices, pension funds, and endowments. As of the Q1 2025 financial report, Coinbase's total assets under management (including institutional and retail clients) reached $404 billion. The specific amount of institutional custodied assets was not explicitly disclosed in the latest report, but it should still be over 50% based on the Q4 2024 report.

Visualization: ChatGPT

Once this security barrier is breached, not only could the rate of user attrition far exceed expectations, but more importantly, institutional trust in it would undermine the foundation of its business. Therefore, after a hacking event, Coinbase's stock price plummeted significantly.

CEXs are All in Self-Rescue Mode

Facing a decline in spot trading fee revenue, Coinbase is also accelerating its transformation, attempting to find growth opportunities in derivatives and emerging assets. Coinbase acquired a stake in the options platform Deribit at the end of 2024 and announced the official launch of perpetual contract products in 2025. This acquisition fills in Coinbase's gap in options trading and its relatively small global market share.

Deribit has a strong presence in non-U.S. markets, especially in Asia and Europe. The acquisition has enabled Coinbase to gain a dominant position in bitcoin and ethereum options trading on Deribit, accounting for approximately 80% of the global options trading volume, with daily trading volume remaining above $2 billion.

Meanwhile, 80-90% of Deribit's customer base consists of institutional investors, with their professionalism and liquidity in the Bitcoin and Ethereum options market highly favored by institutions. Coinbase's compliance advantage, coupled with its already robust institutional ecosystem, makes it even more suitable. By using institutions as an entry point, it can face the squeeze from giants like Binance and OKX in the derivatives market.

Facing a similar dilemma is Kraken, which is attempting to replicate Binance Futures' model in non-U.S. markets. Since the derivatives market relies more on professional users, fee rates are relatively higher and stickiness is stronger, making it a significant source of revenue for exchanges. In the first half of 2025, Kraken completed the acquisition of TradeStation Crypto and a futures exchange, aiming to build a complete derivatives trading ecosystem to hedge the risk of declining spot transaction fee income.

With the surge of Memecoin in 2024, Binance, OKX, and various CEX platforms began massively listing small-market-cap, highly volatile tokens to activate active trading users. Due to the wealth effect and trading activity of Memecoins, Coinbase was also forced to join the battle, successively listing popular tokens from the Solana ecosystem such as BOOK OF MEME and Dogwifhat. Although these coins are controversial, they are frequently traded, with fee rates several times higher than mainstream coins, serving as a "blood-boosting" method for spot trading.

However, due to its status as a publicly traded company, this practice is a riskier endeavor for Coinbase. Even in the current crypto-friendly environment, the SEC is still investigating whether tokens like SOL, ADA, and SAND constitute securities.

In addition to the forced transformation strategies carried out by the aforementioned CEXs, they are also starting to lay out RWAs and the most talked-about stablecoin payment fields, such as the PYUSD launched through a collaboration between Coinbase and Paypal, Coinbase's support for the Euro stablecoin EURC by Circle that complies with EU MiCA regulatory requirements, or the USD1 launched through a collaboration between Binance and WIFL. In the increasingly crowded trading field, many CEXs have shifted their focus from just the trading market to the application field.

The golden age of transaction fees has quietly ended, and the second half of the crypto exchange platform game has silently begun.

Arthur Hayes: Why I'm Betting on ETH While the Market Is Obsessed with SOL

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Within 24 hours, GOONC's market cap soared to 70 million, could GOONC be the next billion-dollar dog on the Believe platform?

Bitcoin has broken $100,000, Ethereum has surpassed 2500, and is Solana's hot streak about to make a comeback?

The current market is in a state of macro euphoria, with GOONC riding the wave today, skyrocketing 10x in just a few hours, reaching a market cap of tens of millions of dollars, trading volume soaring past 50 million, and rumors swirling that the developer may be from OpenAI (unconfirmed but intriguing enough).

The "gooning" Culture in Forums

A ludicrous and absurd Solana meme that some actually buy into.

GOONC is a meme coin that has sprouted from the "gooning" subculture, offering no technological innovation or practical use, its sole function being speculation.

It takes inspiration from an NSFW term "gooning," which refers to a person being deeply immersed in certain content (you know what), eventually entering a nearly religious-like trance.

In Reddit (such as r/GOONED, r/GoonCaves) and some counterculture media outlets (such as MEL Magazine in 2020), "gooning" has gradually transitioned from an adult label to a meme-addicted, digital content and virtual self-indulgence synonym, arguably the epitome of Degen spirit.

GOONC is playing around with this concept, packaging the addictive nature, uselessness, and irony of gooning into a tradable financial product. The project team has made it clear: "We do not solve blockchain problems, we only trade absurdity." Blunt but oddly genuine.

GOONC launched on May 13, 2025, using the meme coin launch platform Believe App's LaunchCoin module on Solana. This tool is highly Degen: zero technical barriers, a few clicks to create a coin, perfect for projects like GOONC that can come up with ideas out of the blue.

The mastermind behind GOONC is also quite something and is the most talked-about, with KOL @basedalexandoor on X platform (alias "Pata van Goon") personally involved. His profile even caught the attention of Marc Andreessen, co-founder of a16z, making onlookers unable to resist speculating if GOONC has a hint of OpenAI lineage.

While this 'OpenAI Endorsement' is currently just community speculation, it is definitely a good card to play to fuel hype. Saying "we are pure speculation" on one hand, while tagging a few "AI + a16z" on the other.

From Wasteland to Moon in One Night

GOONC took off as soon as it launched. After its launch on May 13, 2025, its market capitalization skyrocketed to $22 million within 4 hours, with a trading volume exceeding $25.6 million in 24 hours. According to platform data, the first day of trading saw an astonishing +41,100% surge, soaring from $0.0000001 to $0.02, becoming a "missed-the-boat" situation.

GOONC quickly formed an active trading community post-launch, with a lot of discussion and trading signals appearing on X platform (such as the 292x return signal provided by DeBot). Liquidity pools on exchanges like Raydium and Meteora grew rapidly, supporting high trading volumes and price increases.

The real climax occurred between May 13 and May 14, with the market cap rising to $5.5 million in the morning and directly surpassing $55 million in the afternoon. By the 14th, it briefly approached a $70 million market cap, with the trading volume soaring to $59 million. Some community members even posted screenshots claiming an increase of +85,000%, creating a new myth out of the ruins.

As of 1:30 pm on May 14, the price stabilized around $0.039, with a total market cap and FDV both around $39.6 million, and a 24-hour trading volume of $5.43 million. Active platforms include XT.COM, LBank, Meteora, and others.

Although there was a slight pullback from the peak ($0.07), the coin's popularity remains strong. For a coin that relies purely on "irony + community + X post" to thrive, this performance is already at a stellar level.

Currently, the background of the token's development team is not transparent, increasing the potential risk of a rug pull. Rugcheck.xyz warns that the creator of the GOONC contract may have permission to modify the contract (e.g., change fees or mint additional tokens), posing certain security risks.

Community members speculate that the meteoric rise of GOONC may be the "last hurrah".

After Surging 40%, Has Ethereum Price Peaked Upon Exiting the Craze?

Whether you are an insider or an outsider, these days you must be familiar with the news about Ethereum. The reason is simple, causing Ethereum enthusiasts to sigh with emotion and almost throwing off-guard those who defend Ethereum, Ethereum, with a "3-day surge of 40%," climbed to the top of the Douyin Hot List.

Where Does the Rally Come From?

As we all know, Ethereum launched the Pectra upgrade on May 7th. This most significant network upgrade since early 2024 integrates the Prague execution layer hard fork and the Electra consensus layer upgrade, significantly improving Ethereum's performance through 11 improvement proposals. The account abstraction feature (EIP-7702) allows users to flexibly manage wallets through social media accounts or multi-signature schemes, reducing the user threshold, attracting more users and developers. The staking mechanism optimization increases the validator ETH cap from 32ETH to 2048ETH and introduces a flexible withdrawal method, making it easier for institutions and individuals to participate in network security, enhancing the market's confidence in Ethereum's long-term value.

At the same time, Pectra optimized the interaction efficiency of Layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum and Optimism, making transactions faster and cheaper, leading to a surge in on-chain activity. As a crucial step for Ethereum's transition from "2G" to "5G," the Pectra upgrade not only enhances network vitality but also "recharges confidence" in the market, directly driving the price increase.

Related Reading: "Ethereum Skyrockets 22% in One Day, E Enthusiasts Rejoice"

It's not just Ethereum itself, as Wall Street also brought important bullish news.

The world's largest asset management company, BlackRock, proposed to the SEC allowing Ethereum ETFs for staking. This proposal is expected to elevate Ethereum ETFs from a mere investment tool to a bond-like "interest-bearing asset," bringing investors both capital appreciation and passive income, igniting market optimism about Ethereum's future potential.

Specifically, BlackRock has proposed to amend its S-1 filing to allow investors to create and redeem ETF shares directly with Ethereum instead of the U.S. dollar (i.e., in-kind redemption). This move, combined with its $2.9 billion BUIDL Fund launched in March 2024, aims to deepen the integration of traditional finance with blockchain. The BUIDL Fund is a tokenized fund operating on the Ethereum network, investing in traditional assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds. This setup is highly attractive to institutional investors, as they can not only benefit from Ethereum's price appreciation but also earn stable cash flow through staking.

Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock's Head of Digital Assets, stated in a CNBC interview in March 2025 that the addition of staking functionality will significantly enhance the appeal of the Ethereum ETF. He admitted that when the Ethereum spot ETF was launched in July 2024 without staking functionality, the market demand was lackluster, and staking could be the key to reversing this trend.

Meanwhile, the SEC's shifting stance on cryptocurrency regulation has also fueled this upward trend. During the tenure of the previous SEC chairman, the regulatory approach was tough, and staking was strictly viewed through the Howey test as a potential unregistered security. Therefore, when approving the Ethereum spot ETF in May 2024, staking functionality was explicitly prohibited.

However, with Trump back in the White House and Paul Atkins taking over the SEC, there has been a noticeable relaxation in crypto regulation. Apart from BlackRock, ETF issuers such as Invesco Galaxy, VanEck, WisdomTree, and 21Shares have also submitted applications for similar staking and in-kind redemption.

Related reading: "New Chairman Takes Office, SEC Transforms into 'Crypto Daddy' Within 48 Hours"

If staking ETFs are approved, the benefits are likely to go beyond price appreciation. The introduction of staking functionality could redefine the role of crypto assets, making them more similar to traditional financial products that provide returns and value appreciation, thereby driving Ethereum closer to mainstream finance.

Currently, the SEC still needs to address several decisions related to crypto ETFs, including whether to approve ETFs for Solana, XRP, Litecoin, and even Dogecoin. With the calls for an "altcoin season" growing louder, Ethereum's strong performance may just be the beginning of a larger crypto market frenzy.

In addition, the Trump family-related DeFi project WLFI is also bullish on this wave of rise, with frequent on-chain activities. According to on-chain data analyst @ai_9684xtpa's monitoring, a WLFI-related address is currently borrowing coins to go long on ETH, borrowing 4 million U from Aave to buy 1590 ETH at an average price of $2515 per ETH.

Has Ethereum's Price Peaked in This Wave?

For this epic surge of Ethereum after half a year of silence, the community has indeed gained more confidence and hope, which has also led to a revival of the entire altcoin market. However, amidst the joy, there are also voices of pessimism. Below is a summary conducted by BlockBeats based on community discussions.

The optimists point out that the current market structure is similar to the eve of the bull markets in 2016 and 2020, predicting a life-changing surge in the next 3-6 months, where some altcoins may even achieve astonishing single-day gains of up to 40%.

@liuwei16602825 stated that this surge signifies the return of the bull market as a sure thing. There is no need to worry about a pullback. The driving force behind the surge uses a high-cost isolated operation, fearing a drop more than any retail investor and will definitely do everything to support the price.

Related Reading: "Ethereum Leads the Surge Triggering the 'Altcoin Season' Speculation, How Do Traders View the Future Market?"

The bears mainly believe that this surge is different from the bull market of 2021, as the current market lacks the confidence of large-scale retail investors entering and holding positions for the long term, with funds rotating too quickly.

@market_beggar observed that a Bitfinex E/B whale has started to close positions and believes that if this whale maintains its high-speed position-closing operation for the next few days, it can be inferred that the whale no longer sees the upside potential of ETH, preparing to take profits and exit. The closing time will be a key focus going forward.

@FLS_OTC stated that there are still many uncertainties at the macro level, and the liquidity cannot support a major bull market. At this stage, it is a "last hurrah," not a complete reversal, and will continue to remain in a short position.

@off_thetarget believes that after ETH transitioned from POW to POS, it lost the "gold standard" of mining machine power cost support. The staking economic model led to a breakdown in value anchoring. Additionally, the L2 ecosystem (such as Starknet, zkSync, etc.) suffered from liquidity fragmentation, failing to establish an effective capital inflow mechanism, causing the collapse of the split disc pattern. Furthermore, the ETH community's excessive pursuit of technical narratives divorced from real-world needs resulted in a weak ecosystem growth. Therefore, he believes that ETH's intrinsic value system has crumbled, and the price is bound to plummet to the 800-1200 range, with a decisive short position at 1800.

@Airdrop_Guard, based on the core logic of the "High Probability Trading Strategy," where three sets of underlying logic different trading systems (such as volume depletion, price supply-demand, long/short position funding rate, etc.) simultaneously issue a short signal at the same point (2580), creating a high-probability trading opportunity. He emphasizes that these systems must be based on different algorithms and logics (rather than mere technical indicator overlays). The current ETH trend aligns with the short conditions in multiple independent dimensions of his trading system, hence the decision to short.

Overall, Bitcoin still maintains over 54% market dominance, and institutional funds' continued preference for it may limit the altcoin's upward potential. The market's future direction will depend on multiple factors, such as Bitcoin's price trend, global macroeconomic conditions, and whether funds can effectively rotate from Bitcoin to the altcoin sector.

Although Ethereum's recent leadership in the market has brought about optimistic sentiment, investors still need to remain rational as different sectors of altcoins are likely to show divergence in trends. Whether this round of Ethereum's rise will usher in a true altcoin frenzy may require more time and conducive conditions.

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Binance Sparks "Delist Concept": Can CEX Still Produce the Next ALPACA?

On April 24, Binance announced that it would delist four tokens, including Alpaca Finance ($ALPACA), on May 2, and cease trading of these pairs' perpetual futures contracts at 00:00 on May 1, 2025, Beijing time. Fast forward to the last day of perpetual futures trading delisting, ALPACA surged on the liquidation heat map. Over the past 24 hours, a total of $52.21 million evaporated in ALPACA's contract trading, exceeding the sum of the token's liquidation volume over the past two years.

Historically, when a token is listed on Binance, many traders would buy the news instantly ("Buy the News"). As the Binance listing effect gradually waned, traders found another path, which is to short sell the tokens set to be delisted from Binance ("Sell the News"). This strategy often has a very high success rate. However, as traders followed this path, they encountered the Alpaca on their short-selling journey.

The Long and Short of ALPACA's Journey

Every thrilling market manipulation game requires careful preparation. Before Binance's official announcement, on April 10, $ALPACA was ranked 7th in the preliminary list of the second batch of "Vote for Delisting" on Binance, causing its price to plummet almost by half. However, in the five days leading up to Binance's official announcement, from April 19 to April 23, trading volume suddenly surged.

The story traces back to the start of Binance's second round of "Vote for Delisting," where ALPACA was included in the delisting candidates list, ranked 7th among 17 projects. After the completion of Binance's delisting vote count, $ALPACA was included in the projects to be delisted. The market did not react significantly, price fluctuations were not substantial, but trading volumes expanded abnormally, suggesting the entry of "manipulative funds" into the community.

On April 24, Binance officially announced the delisting of the $ALPACA spot trading pair on May 2 and the settlement of the futures contracts on April 30. Following the announcement, the spot price of $ALPACA dropped from $0.0329 to $0.029, with a market cap of only about $5 million. However, what followed were two price "rollercoaster" moments; within an hour, the price surged from $0.029 to $0.0857, an increase of about 195%, only to rapidly drop back to $0.04 within 3 hours. Shorts were caught off guard, and the open interest of contracts surged rapidly, initiating the "long and short grinder" mode.

On April 25, Alpaca Finance officially announced that the trading volume in the past 24 hours had exceeded 1 billion tokens. The liquidity provider had suggested a "minting for stability" to be returned to the treasury after a decrease in trading volume. However, as public opinion began to ferment, opposition filled the community. Alpaca Finance deleted the previous tweet and posted a new one at 9 p.m. on the same night, announcing the cancellation of the minting due to community opposition.

On April 26, Binance amended the contract funding rate rules, shortening the maximum rate cap settlement period to hourly and setting it at up to ±2%. Some high-leverage accounts continued to hold short positions against the high rate and were liquidated. Millions of dollars disappeared within a few hours, with $13 million in short positions vanishing on a token with a market cap of less than $30 million.

With the establishment of this short-selling trend, the price skyrocketed nearly 12 times from a low of $0.029 to $0.3477 within 3 days. The contract's open interest surged significantly, especially with a notable increase in short positions, resembling a microcosm of the Wall Street battle of GME's retail investors. However, this time, the retail investors' opponents could continue to mint additional chips.

From April 26 to April 29, these days were relatively calm, with the price fluctuating around $0.2 to $0.34. On April 29, Binance announced another increase in the rate cap to ±4%. Theoretically, such a high rate would severely impact short positions. If the rate remains at -4%, the bears will face a 96% "cost of ruin" after holding a short position for 24 hours. However, miraculously, the price plummeted from $0.27 to $0.067.

On April 30, with the contract delisting and liquidation scheduled in the final 24 hours, the price continued to experience intense fluctuations. ALPACA's attention peaked, with its highest price reaching $1.2 at one point. From a week before the delisting announcement to the eve of the contract delisting, ALPACA's price surged 40 times, creating an independent market for the token delisted by Binance. The total liquidation volume across the network also reached $50 million, with $42 million in "bearish fuel" beneath the price surge.

Community Discussion

Can the "Buying Shell" Strategy Guarantee Breakeven?

After the first surge of ALPACA, Heyi, the co-founder of Binance, replied to a netizen asking, "Can the teacher who buys the shell guarantee breakeven?" This has also triggered endless speculation among community members.

KOL Tunbtc believes that Heyi's reply to this matter was the starting point of ALPACA's surge. "The large holders of Alpaca's native token, by transferring spot chips, operating rights, and distribution rights, have pledged allegiance to Binance's deep-water core interest circle, allowing it to fully harvest market liquidity before delisting, slaughtering opposing positions." Through a triple path of fees, contract liquidations, and spot volatility, they converted user attention into profits.

He also called on Binance to thoroughly investigate this matter, clarify which market maker is manipulating the candlestick patterns, as ALPACA saw an 18x surge within 24 hours with users liquidated of tens of millions of dollars, while previously GPS's 500% surge was promptly halted, and expressed his sentiment: "All of this is thought-provoking."

Wenze, the founder of Beta Capital, believes that bypassing the regular listing process, buying shells, renaming, and restarting has crossed Binance's bottom line of maintaining listing credibility and brand compliance. Binance sometimes has a high tolerance for market fluctuations, and the OM issuance only adjusts the collateralization ratio, with many projects only allowed for leveraged trading. However, once the project, such as these "shell projects," is identified, it is easily labeled for observation, triggering a vote for delisting, ultimately leading to delisting rather than using mild measures.

The Mastermind Behind the Scenes

Renowned KOL Rui, "YeruiZhang," likened the ALPACA incident to "crazy revenge on an ex" and shared a piece of insider information, claiming that the original whale behind ALPACA was a team that controlled BSC's MEV for a period of time and expressed dissatisfaction with Binance's current management for some reason. The comments section is rampant with speculation that it is BSC's whale 48CLUB, and 48CLUB's Ian even personally appeared to eat "his own melon."

The "Delisting Concept"

With the recent buzz around VOXEL's surge and the wealth effect and discussion surrounding ALPACA, more and more "delisting concepts" have emerged. This concept does not necessarily refer to tokens that have already been delisted but rather shares some common characteristics of delisted tokens.

Famous KOL Chuanmo recently shared on Twitter his logic for choosing concept tokens and listed several tokens, all of which experienced varying degrees of price increase after his recommendation.

His "Concept Delisting" strategy involves selecting low-cap tokens from Bybit and Binance, arranging them by market cap from lowest to highest, with almost 100% price increase for the tokens with the highest holdings/circulating market cap. He buys three tokens daily following this order with a fixed amount, and based on the holdings/circulating supply ratio, he removes tokens that no longer meet the criteria daily and continues to buy the new top three tokens.

Many community members have tested this strategy, with some creating helpful tools. The dreamer Disney "discountifu" has created a dashboard, and Vivek10 early bird "vivekw_eth" has developed a monitoring and alert system that can be directly pushed to WeChat with a copyable link, although it is currently deployed locally and not yet entirely stable.

However, when using tools created for free by community members, please be cautious. While there are many enthusiastic contributors in the community, there are also many uncertain factors in this dark forest.

In an increasingly insular market, retail investors not only have to contend with whales and other retail investors but also must bear many unstable elements. The recent ALPACA incident serves as a warning to us. Whether it's a primary or secondary listing on a top-tier exchange or the "Concept Delisting" approach, we need to make rational asset allocations amidst FOMO to protect our principal and reach the other shore.

The mention of all tokens above does not constitute financial investment advice "NFA".

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